competency recovery week: more than just a week off

by emmakneissl-williams'18

During the week of January 19-22, Bedford High School tried something new: Competency Recovery Week. During this week students who were failing a competency in a class went in and tested in the material that they struggled with. This allowed them to better their grade and understanding in the class. Many students in IB and AP classes were also required to take a test during the week as a regular course requirement. Students who were competent in all their classes and who also did not have to come in for IB or AP midterms did not have to attend school, while others only had to go in on select days for the classes in which they needed improvement. People took advantage of their time off in different ways. Some took the time to relax, sleep in, and unwind after a stressful week of midterms. However, Lauren Johnson explains how she spent her time: “I hung out with my friends most of the time, and then the day before Friday I had to study for Chemistry, because I had the Chemistry midterm.”Other people used the time to attain Real World Learning hours. As Grace Johnson says, “I got some community service [hours] one day by going to Riddle Brook.” Going to work was another way that students spent their time off. As Megan Tipping shares, she had “Three tests in total… After that I went skiing on Thursday and went to work all day Friday.” Most students did not travel for competency recovery week because they either had tests or classes, had short notice, or needed to go in for make-up work and projects.Overall, people had mixed feelings about competency week. Deepti Rao didn’t find it helpful because “It is a lot of pressure to get everything done in that one week. And even though the teachers said that they were expecting it to be a break for us, it really wasn’t… Instead of one week of midterms we essentially had two weeks of midterms, which was really, really awful.” In addition to some students having to go in for tests during competency week, the previous week was filled with midterms in almost every class, as well as homework in others.On the other hand, some students found it helpful, as Rishab Thapa explains, “I liked it because I brought my math grade up a lot… I thought it was relaxing, too, the rest of the days that I was home.” For people that went in to become competent, it provided them with a time to demonstrate their understanding of the material and to improve their grades to reflect that understanding.Competency week was a time which, based on students’ academic standings, types of classes, and access to transportation, created a week where students had drastically different experiences. It is important to recognize the opportunity it provided for students that were not competent, but also the sheer number of tests that students had over two weeks and the consequential stress that comes with that.